Tag: Protests

Two Libyan air force colonels landed their Mirage F-1 fighter jets in Malta on Monday, explaining that they were ordered to bomb protesters in Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city, and chose instead to flee.

Wisconsin Democratic lawmakers fled their state to avoid voting on a controversial anti-union bill that would boost public workers’ pension and medical contributions and deny them the right to collectively bargain. In Madison, meantime, thousands of protesters milled around the state Capitol building Friday in a fourth day of demonstrations.

The Italian prime minister will face trial for allegedly paying a 17-year-old girl for sex, among other charges. If convicted, Berlusconi could get up to 15 years in prison, which might please the hundreds of thousands of Italian women protesting his behavior toward women.

In the third straight day of confrontation, several hundred protesters clashed with police in Yemen’s capital city of Sanaa as demonstrations against the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh echoed events in Egypt and elsewhere across the Arab world.

In attempting to persuade Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to leave the scene, Washington desperately wants to avoid further radicalization on the streets of Egypt and, above all, to ensure that the Egyptian army remains unscathed.

A military show of strength defined the sixth day of anti-government protests across Egypt. Jet fighters repeatedly flew over Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the main center for demonstrators, while a column of tanks, a la Tiananmen Square, was blocked by protesters.

Those waiting for recovery from unemployment woes might have to wait a bit longer. The U.N.’s International Labor Organization has warned that it may take until 2015 for the global economy to bounce back to pre-crisis employment levels. Meantime, look for more social unrest of the kind now unfolding across Europe.

Anyone who has ever backpacked through the land of smiles knows that the Thai people love their king (or at least put his picture everywhere). The world’s longest-reigning monarch doesn’t normally involve himself in the country’s messy political upheavals, but King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 82, is finally speaking out after seven weeks of sometimes lethal protests.

Scuffles between police and protesters erupted in Ciudad Juarez, the border town in Mexico that has been the scene of hundreds of drug-related murders, as Mexican President Felipe Calderon proposed new crime initiatives to a skeptical public.

It looks like the G-20 is set to permanently replace the G-7 as the world’s dominant economic forum, an indirect admission that there was something unfair about the world’s seven wealthiest countries deciding economic policy for the entire globe.

In Iran, it is estimated that hundreds more people than Iranian officials have admitted have died in the heavy military crackdowns on election protesters. Meanwhile, President Ahmadinejad has promised to do more cracking down, this time on the West, stating “this nation will strike you in the face so hard you will lose your way home.”

On Tuesday’s “Democracy Now!” broadcast, Amy Goodman interviews Nury Turkel, an Uighur-American attorney and co-founder of the Uighur Human Rights Project. Get to know the Uighurs and their struggle in China.

It is now estimated that at least 156 people have been killed, more than 800 injured and some 700 arrested as the Chinese government cracks down on protesters who are demanding justification for the death of two Uighur workers in restive Xinjiang province. Here is some video footage of the protests taking place.

Several reformists currently jailed in Iran are alleged to have been tortured as the government tried to obtain videotaped “confessions” of a foreign plot against the government. Such “confessions” would paint politicians like presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi as agents of the West.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said Friday there was no fraud in last week’s presidential election and demanded an end to massive street protests. He warned that political leaders supporting such protests—words aimed directly at losing candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi—would be responsible for any violence.

Tens of thousands of Iranians gathered around Mir Hossein Mousavi on Thursday to mourn those killed during the election protests. At least eight people have died. On Friday, the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will lead prayers at the University of Tehran, the scene of a bloody crackdown a few days ago, and is expected to address how the government plans to resolve the crisis.

After at least 54 people were killed in a bloody roadblock protest earlier this month, native groups in Peru have won a commitment from the government to revoke laws that opened the Amazon to foreign oil and gas companies to exploit indigenous land for resources.

Twitter, the popular microblogging network, has played a significant role in connecting people interested in the popular protests happening in Iran. The service has been so important that the State Department asked Twitter to stay online—and delay its scheduled maintenance—so as to keep Iranian dissent open to the rest of the world.

President Obama says he is concerned about violence directed at protesters, but does not want “to be seen as meddling in Iranian elections.” He also warns that the “difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi in terms of their actual policies may not be as great as has been advertised.”

No matter how trite it has become for the media to focus on the “clashes” and “violence” that have “erupted” at the G-20 demonstrations in London, stories on the economic summit seem to overlook the legitimate concerns that protesters have against the world’s 20 largest economies orchestrating macroeconomic policy for the rest of the world.

While the Nobel prizes recognize lifetime achievements in medicine, chemistry, physics, literature, economics and peace, and Sweden is a paragon among progressive, social democracies, there is another side to Sweden and the Nobels that warrants a closer look.

In the face of California’s unsettling passage of Proposition 8 barring gay marriage, gay couples in Connecticut are beginning to exercise their equal rights after a final court hearing cleared the way for same-sex unions, ending a long legal battle in the Constitution State.

Are we witnessing the re-emergence of the far right as a power in American politics? Has John McCain, inadvertently perhaps, become the midwife of a new movement built around fear, xenophobia, racism and anger?

Taking cues from past Olympic protests and the U.S.‘s notoriously ironic “free speech zones,” the Chinese government has declared its openness to dissidents criticizing the state—so long as dissent is contained in one of three areas, does not threaten vague notions of national unity, and is submitted five days beforehand to the local security bureau.

Food riots are erupting around the world. Behind the hunger, behind the riots, are so-called free-trade agreements, and the brutal emergency-loan agreements imposed on poor countries by financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund.

Sen. Barack Obama is clearly a bad bowler. But it was not too long ago that African-Americans were not allowed in some bowling alleys. In Orangeburg, S.C., three young African-American men were killed for protesting against that town’s segregated bowling alley.

The pope is set to land Tuesday for a whirlwind visit to America, his first since assuming the mantle of the Roman Catholic Church. A spokesman has indicated that Benedict XVI will address the church’s sex abuse scandal, a topic around which protests are expected.

Speaking from Japan, the Dalai Lama told reporters that he has supported the Beijing Olympics “right from the beginning,” but that protesters have a right to voice themselves. His government in exile, however, released a statement in opposition to the demonstrations that have followed the Olympic torch.

The governor of Tibet has denied reports that Chinese security forces fired on the civilians and monks who have been demonstrating in the capital city of Lhasa and neighboring provinces. Opposition leaders say 80 or more protesters have been killed and witnesses have reported Chinese soldiers shooting at monks.

Despite a military crackdown that led to the death and capture of countless civilians, Buddhist monks are once again protesting in Burma, though in much smaller numbers than before. Still, human rights and democracy advocates consider it a promising development.

President Bush has weighed in on the massive protests in Burma (Myanmar), saying he will boost sanctions against the country’s abusive military government. Meanwhile, thousands of Buddhist monks have defied government warnings and continue to demonstrate.

The Starbucks empire is often lampooned for its many, many stores, but the coffee giant has lost one of its most prominent locations. Responding to the demands of more than half a million citizens, the Chinese government closed down the Starbucks in the Forbidden City, the ancient imperial palace complex in the heart of Beijing.

Five South African men, including former Police Minister Adriaan Vlok, have received suspended prison sentences for attempting to assassinate a prominent anti-apartheid leader 18 years ago. The intended target, Frank Chikane, who now works for the president, did not want the men to go to prison. Vlok previously sought forgiveness by washing Chikane’s feet.

Saudi Arabia and Iran have joined forces to mediate tensions in Lebanon in an odd turn of events that is sure to addle the Bush administration. While the U.S. strongly opposes Iran’s regional influence, Saudi Arabia is but the latest American ally to cozy up to Tehran in the interest of stability.

“The truth about Islam is as politically incorrect as it is terrifying: Islam is all fringe and no center,” writes America’s most prominent secularist in a challenging and provocative new essay.UPDATE: Harris responds to a deluge of comments and some criticism.

The Tehran city council-owned newspaper says it is testing the West’s arguments about freedom of expression. | storyMeanwhile, Four Afghans are killed in cartoon-related protests near the U.S. base in Bagram—the first time violence has been directed against America in the controversy. | story

Thousands take to the streets of Karachi to protest a deadly air attack that killed at least 17. | storyThe airstrike’s target, Al Qaeda’s top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, reportedly had been invited to dinner at the raid site but decided not to go.